Israel Pounds Central Gaza, Sends Tanks Into North Of Rafah

Israeli forces hit areas in the central Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing at least nine Palestinians, according to health officials, while Israeli tanks carried out a limited advance further into Rafah in the south.

Over the past 24 hours, Israeli strikes have killed at least 81 Palestinians and wounded 198, the Gaza health ministry said. The ministry does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its casualty count.

In Rafah, where medics said two people were killed in an airstrike, tanks carried out a raid in the north of the city before pulling back, a tactic Israeli forces have used in other areas before mounting deeper incursions.

The Israeli military said troops were "continuing precise, intelligence-based operational activity in the Rafah area". It said they had eliminated what it called a terrorist cell and a launcher that had been used to fire at troops.

It said airstrikes had struck 25 targets throughout the Gaza Strip during the past day and that troops were continuing to operate in the central area, in part to dismantle structures used to observe the soldiers.

Nine months into the war, Palestinian fighters led by the Islamist Hamas group are still able to attack Israeli forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs, occasionally firing barrages of rockets into Israel.

Israel's defence minister said that the military had made significant gains and the pressure was working.

"Operations in Gaza have led to the conditions necessary to achieve an agreement for the return of hostages," Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in an overnight call with his U.S. counterpart, Lloyd Austin.

Israel vowed to eradicate Hamas after its militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostage in an attack on 7 October, according to Israeli tallies.

On Tuesday, the military said it had eliminated half of the leadership of Hamas' military wing and killed or captured about 14,000 fighters since the start of the war, around half the fighting force estimated by the Israeli military.

At least 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's retaliatory offensive since then, Gaza health authorities say. Israel says 326 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza.

The US military said on Wednesday that it was ending its mission to operate a temporary floating pier to bring humanitarian aid by ship to Gaza, which is facing famine. The effort will now shift to the Israeli port of Ashdod.

The pier helped route 20 million pounds of aid to Gaza but only operated about 20 days due to weather disruptions.